Keep calm, Waipā
Making towns in Waipā safer and more pleasant places to live for everybody is the main aim of traffic calming measures, Waipā District Councillors were told at a workshop today.
The workshop aimed to inform the elected members on why traffic calming options such as raised safety platforms are necessary, which methods work best in Waipā, and how they are designed, located and built.
Transportation Manager Bryan Hudson said the concept of calming traffic is as old as the motor car itself, and the reasons for it are obvious around schools and other high pedestrian areas. It’s also used on main streets such as Victoria Street in Cambridge and Alexandra Street in Te Awamutu, to help make attractive and pedestrian-friendly town centres.
Increasingly, though, developers request traffic calming in new subdivisions, as it creates safer neighbourhoods for people to enjoy.
Hudson said it was common for the Council to receive complaints about people driving too fast, using residential streets to try and avoid traffic congestion, and failing to stop at intersections, particularly in Cambridge. Children being unable to walk or ride safely to school, and people not being able to cross the road safely on foot were also common problems.
“All of these can be reduced with appropriate traffic calming – just putting a sign up and some paint on the road doesn’t work. People like safer streets.”
Methods to calm traffic include using roundabouts and traffic lights, making roads narrower with chicanes, using raised platforms or humps, and landscaping.
Hudson said the Council didn’t always get it right, and was continuing to refine its engineering methods. “It’s very difficult to accurately lay asphalt at a temperature of 150 degrees and then compact it into a perfect hump shape, but we are getting better, and we are open to making changes where they are needed.”
Council complies with the guidance from Fire Emergency New Zealand for the design of its traffic calming measures, and shares its plans with emergency services and community boards before undertaking community engagement.
Hudson acknowledged that on occasion this process had not been followed, for example, the fast-track to get central Government funding for Cambridge’s shared pathway meant not all correct public engagement steps were carried out regarding the raised safety platforms on Alpha Street.
Hudson said that while the community was consulted on the general concept for the section of the pathway which connects through to Te Awa River Ride, the deadlines imposed by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) at the time meant that detailed designs were not available for consultation.
“It was all very rush-rush – in order to get the NZTA funding inside a very small window it was quite possible we missed a step.”
He said the aim of the raised safety platforms in Alpha Street was to slow traffic on the approach to the Gaslight Theatre driveway, which had visibility concerns.
Hudson said that population growth in Waipā, and particularly in Cambridge, made for rapidly increasing traffic volumes and with that came increasing conflicts between the needs of people walking and cycling, and those driving.
“Car drivers have had many years of priority investment, but with the increasing traffic volume, we need to increase our investment in safe walking, cycling and public transport to create equitable and sustainable travel in our communities.”
Anyone interested in the workshop can watch from the timestamp 1.52:09 at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9qMzy4R66c
